Hillary Clinton’s Catholic Fan Club

Under Pope Francis, Progressive Catholics exaggerate papal authority.

In Catholicism, “ultramontanism” is a worldview in which the pope is accorded exaggerated authority. Ultramontane means “beyond the mountains,” and it is today a remnant of European struggles from centuries back when some looked to the pope who lived over the Alps in Rome over their own authorities.

For most of its history “ultramontanism” has been a temptation of the right. But the leaked John Podesta emails on Catholics suggest...